Under the Sea

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The song is a plea by the crab Sebastian imploring Ariel to remain sea-bound, and resist her desire to become a human in order to spend her life with Prince Eric, with whom she has fallen in love. Sebastian warns of the struggles of human life while at the same time expounding the benefits of a care-free life underwater. However, Ariel manages to sneak off with the aid of Flounder just before Sebastian's finale.

In 2007, the Broadway musical version uses this as the featured production number with the role of Sebastian played by Tituss Burgess. Because Burgess is a tenor (unlike the baritone Wright), the key of the song was raised from B-flat to D. The placing of the song is also moved to after the scene in which King Triton destroys Ariel's collection of "human stuff", where the purpose of the song was to cheer Ariel up.

Contents

Lyrics

The Broadway version of "Under the Sea" takes place after Ariel's grotto has been destroyed. Sebastian uses the song to cheer Ariel up. A reprise of the song is also played when Ariel leaves Sebastian.

Ariel, listen to me. The human world, it's a mess.
Life under the sea is better than any'ting they got up there!

The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there,
But that is a big mistake
Just look at 'de world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?

Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter,
Take it from me!

Up on the shore they work all day,
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full-time to floatin',
Under the sea!

Down here all the fish is happy
As off through the waves they roll
The fish on the land ain't happy
They sad 'cause they in their bowl

But fish in the bowl is lucky
They in for a worser fate
One day when the boss get hungry...
Guess who's gon' be on the plate?

Uh-oh!
Under the sea
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee

We what 'de land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We got no troubles,
Life is the bubbles!
Under the sea (under the sea)
Under the sea (under the sea)

Since life is sweet here,
We got the beat here
Naturally
Naturally-y-y-y

Even the sturgeon an' the ray
They get the urge 'n' start to play
We got the spirit
You got to hear it
Under the sea!

The newt play the flute
The carp play the harp
The plaice play the bass
And they soundin' sharp
The bass play the brass
The chub play the tub
The fluke is the duke of soul (Yeah)

The ray he can play
The lings on the strings
The trout rockin' out
The blackfish she sings
The smelt and the sprat
They know where it's at
An' oh that blowfish blow!

(Instrumental bridge)

Yeah!
Under the sea
(Under the sea)
Under the sea
(Under the sea)
When the sardine
Begin the beguine,
It's music to me
(Music is to me)

What do they got? A lot of sand
We got a hot crustacean band
Each little clam here
Know how to jam here
Under the sea!

Each little slug here
Cuttin' a rug here
Under the sea!

Each little snail here
Know how to wail here
That's why it's hotter
Under the water!
Ya we in luck here
Down in the muck here
Under the sea!

SEA CREATURES
The newt play the flute
The carp play the harp
The plaice play the bass
And they soundin' sharp
The bass play the brass
The chub play the tub
The fluke is the duke of soul

SEBASTIAN
Yes he is!

SEBASTIAN & SEA CREATURES
The ray, he can play
The lings on the strings
The trout rockin' out
The blackfish, she sings
The smelt and the sprat
They know where it's at
An' oh, that blowfish blow!

Under the sea
Under the sea
When the sardine begin the beguine
It's music to me
What do they got, a lot of sand?
We got a hot crustacean band

SEBASTIAN
Each little clam here know how to jam here, Under the sea
Each little slug here cutting a rug here, Under the sea
We got a hot crustacean band here, Under the sea
Each little snail here know how to wail here
That's why it's hotter under the water
Ya, we in luck here down in the muck here
Under the...

Other appearances

"Under the Sea" appears as part of Sebastian's Musical minigame in Atlantica. It is sang by Sebastian, Sora, and Ariel. Its story-related appearance alludes to Ariel's discovery of Prince Eric's statue and wish to see the human world, similarly to how it's used in The Little Mermaid.

It is often performed by Suburban Legends during their live performances. The band performed frequently at Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort in their early years, and still often play at Disneyland's Tomorrowland Terrace. The song appears on their 2012 album, Day Job.

Parodies

In 1991, this song was parodied by musician Tom Smith with his song, "On The PC". This song was re-written in 1999 as "PC99".

The song was parodied on the TV show Kappa Mikey where Mikey tries to convince a squid to live on land with him.

The song was parodied on the TV show Bobby's World as "Underwater the Fish Don't Stink". The context was a dream of Bobby's in which he was a fish and his Uncle Ted was a merman - it turned out Bobby was having the dream because he was sleeping outside and the lawn sprinklers had turned on.

The song was also briefly parodied in the Tiny Toons movie How I Spent My Vacation.

The song was parodied on the TV show The Simpsons in the episode "Homer Badman," in a sequence where Homer Simpson imagines living under water (eating all of the characters from The Little Mermaid) to escape the protesters and media circus who have accused him of sexually harassing a college coed.

On a 2011 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Tina Fey, a mermaid princess (Fey) sings another version called "Below the Waves" with her sea-animal friends: a crab resembling Sebastian (Kenan Thompson), two salmon (Abby Elliot and Vanessa Bayer), a seahorse (Paul Brittain) and a manta ray (Fred Armisen).

The song, as well as a majority of other factors in the film, was parodied in an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy in which Billy's character goes swimming and encounters a small yellow crab who sings a song for him entitled "Under the Ocean" in a style reminiscent the scene of Sebastian singing the song for Ariel.

Trivia

Just as the Broadway version has this song placed after King Triton destroys Ariel's grotto, in The Little Mermaid Jr., the song is sung right after "Part of Your World" before Ariel first encounters Prince Eric.

Both of these placements could be due to the addition of the song "She's In Love".

The music is briefly heard during Aladdin just before Genie turns Aladdin into a prince. During this segment, the Genie opens a recipe book to find a supposed recipe for a prince and comes upon "Alaskan king crab", a snippet of "Under the Sea" playing as he pulls Sebastian from his finger.

At least 12 known species of fish are mentioned in the song, even though it is entitled "Under the Sea", the fish mentioned are a mix between freshwater and marine.

This song is the only song in the Disney Renaissance to be both a main and ending song and use the same singer and melody in each use. Starting with Beauty and the Beast and its titular song, the main and ending covers are sung by different people.

The dolphin who loops around during the song is likely a cameo of Breaker, a character who was cut from the final film.

In the sing along version of this song, the first part was sung twice and after Sebastian sang "an' oh that blowfish blow!" the first chorus line was sung a third time.

In the official comic adaptation for The Little Mermaid, the song was instead incorporated into dialogue.